Amy Winehouse honoured on Camden’s Music Walk of Fame

Fans chanted Amy Winehouse’s name as a stone bearing her name was unveiled on the Music Walk of Fame in Camden, north London.

Amy Winehouse died of accidental alcohol poisoning.

The singer’s parents, Mitch and Janis, attended the ceremony, calling it a “tremendous accolade and a privilege”.

Camden was the star’s main stomping ground and fans regularly pay their respects outside her former house.

“She loved Camden and now she’s indelibly part of the streets,” Mitch told BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt.

“It’s a wonderful tribute to her – but, on the other hand, it reminds us once again that she’s not here.”

Winehouse achieved international acclaim in 2006 with her second album Back to Black, winning multiple Brit and Grammy awards.

She subsequently struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, exacerbated by fierce media scrutiny and the imprisonment of her husband Blake Fielder-Civil on charges of assault and obstruction of justice.

Having kicked drugs and started work on a third album, the star was found dead at her home in 2011.

An inquest found the 27-year-old had died of accidental alcohol poisoning.

Film plans

Winehouse’s family has since set up a foundation in her name to help young people with problems including addiction.

The unveiling of her plaque on the Music Walk of Fame on Wednesday was followed by a fundraiser in aid of the charity.

Mitch Winehouse said the work of the foundation had helped him “since Amy passed away”.

“Amy’s up there and she says to me, ‘Get out of bed, Dad, you’ve got work to do,'” he said. “It’s another legacy.”

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, Mitch also hinted at plans to celebrate the star’s musical legacy in the coming months.

“I can’t really elaborate, but we’ve got a movie and we’ve got a Broadway show,” he told 6 Music. “It’s all going to be announced in the near future.”

The former cab driver previously disowned the Oscar-winning documentary about Winehouse’s life and career, claiming director Asif Kapadia had painted a “negative, spiteful and misleading” portrayal of his daughter.

“That horrible film gives the impression that she was all on her own,” he said. “But she was surrounded by people who adored her and that’s what I want [fans] to understand”.

Speaking in 2015, Kapadia insisted his film was “an honest representation of what we felt was going on around Amy”.

“We spoke to over 100 people, we saw a lot of material and a lot of footage,” he told Radio 1’s Newsbeat. “We’ve done our homework.”

Mitch Winehouse said the film he was planning would allow “people to know Amy how she really was”.

“She was a joker, a practical joker,” he went on. “She loved music and being with her family and friends.”

Mitch said the singer, who would have been 35 this year, was an “ordinary girl… with an extraordinary talent that even she didn’t understand”.

“I talked to her about it and she’d say, ‘Dad, I don’t know how I can write a song like that.’ She didn’t have a clue. And I want people to understand that.

“She was a lovely, lovely girl.”

Winehouse’s stone is the third to be unveiled on Camden’s recently established Music Walk of Fame, following earlier ones dedicated to The Who and Madness.

Soul II Soul will be commemorated in a like fashion on Thursday, ahead of the 6 Music festival which takes place in Camden over the weekend. – bbc.com